Throw Away Teen by Shannon Kennedy Page B

coffee.” If I was going to make a fool of myself, I preferred to do it without an audience.
    “ This first lesson lasts an hour.” Sensei Nichols joined us in the lobby. He was barefoot, too.
    I was glad Liz didn’t hug or kiss me goodbye. I was embarrassed enough standing there in white pajamas. Ted lifted his hand like a boy scout and promised they’d be back on time. Had Carol told them about all the times I’d been dropped off places by foster parents who promised to return but disappeared forever? It wasn’t like I cared if the foster parents never came back. I was used to being abandoned. But it sure would’ve been nice if they’d warned me beforehand so I could have brought my stuff along.
    After Liz and Ted were gone, I lifted my chin and gave the karate dude a solid once-over, like he didn’t freak me out. “Okay, Sensei . Let’s get started.”
    “ First, we’ll fix your belt.” Sensei Nichols stopped a foot away from me then untied his belt. Did he plan to touch me? I stepped back and quickly scanned the dojo for anything that would make a handy weapon. “Okay, now watch how I do it.” Step by step, he retied his belt again with a special knot, repeating the procedure six more times.
    I copied him. It was hard at first, but I finally got it. When I was familiar with the knot, he showed me the proper way to bow. Seeing him strictly follow each of his own rules made it easier for me to obey as well.
    Then we went into the big room with the mirrors. I figured it was finally time to learn how to kick and punch people, but it wasn’t. Sensei Nichols had more rules. Most of them had to do with respecting others and refraining from violence. I almost told him that they didn’t do that in the movies. He might not teach me how to deal major pain if I gave him a hard time.
    Once I got all his rules down in English, he began to teach them to me in Japanese. Then, after going through some stretching exercises, he showed me how I was supposed to stand and sit. And finally, it was what he called real karate. I had to cross my arms and snap one up and the other down to my waist. So, what?
    Karate people were supposed to beat each other up. Everybody knew that. I certainly did after all the TV and movies I’d watched. We weren’t even doing that stupid “wax on, wax off thing” they did in The Karate Kid . I seriously wondered if this guy really knew what he was doing or if he was taking Ted’s money under false pretenses. Was he some kind of con-artist who ripped off old people?
    “ Oss, Sensei,” Ringo said as he came up to us. Did he just call Sensei a moose? And how had he managed to be that quiet? I hadn’t even heard him arrive.
    I felt my knees turn to mush when he glanced at me and had to remind myself to keep breathing. I was probably just embarrassed because he was seeing me in huge white pajamas. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been around a lot of guys before. And Ringo wasn’t any different from the others, even if he was hot.
    “ May I join the class?” Ringo asked.
    “ This is a private lesson,” Sensei Nichols said.
    “ I don’t mind,” I told him. “We aren’t doing this stuff right anyway. I’ve seen karate on TV before.”
    “ What are you doing, Sensei?” Ringo looked like he wanted to smile, but he obviously didn’t want to get yelled at for mocking the teacher.
    Sensei Nichols said something in Japanese then translated it to English. “Rising Blocks, Ringo. Help her practice.” He walked off, calling over his shoulder. “I need a drink of water.”
    “ Oss , Sensei.” Ringo turned to me. “You can’t learn to punch until you’ve learned all of the blocks.”
    “You mean there’s more than one? Talk about boring.”
    “ Tell you what. Do ten more Rising Blocks, and I’ll teach you how to punch,” Ringo said. “Deal?”
    I hesitated, trying to figure out what he really wanted. He just stood and waited. So, I gave up. “Okay.”
    There was a right way to punch,